There are tons of entries in the holiday movie canon featuring reluctant heroes, urgent adventures, and hearts growing three sizes in one day. Amongst the peppermint-wrapped sentiments and life lessons, one thing is certain: there is always family. They’re just not always the nicest people.
YMC rounded up the Top 5 Worst Holiday Movie Families, but just because they’re the worst, it doesn’t mean they’re not worth watching. (Even if it's just to be thankful they're not your family.)
The Top Five Classic Holiday Movies You'll Want To Watch With Your Kids
Sure, it’s a hectic house, full of relatives, brimming over with suitcases and cousins who wet the bed they share with you, but COME ON! (Spoiler alert) They forgot Kevin? Even his own mother? A mother who is then is forced to do cinematic penance for the whole film by traveling back in increasingly incredible modes of transport? They forgot a little boy at home and crossed international borders.
Worst. Family. Ever. Except for the next four.
In the beloved holiday classic, the Griswolds are just trying to put together a nice family Christmas. Clark (Chevy Chase) is looking forward to that big, fat bonus cheque and jollying the rest of his clan along on a freezing trip to find a tree, light the lights, and make merry when Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) shows up in his RV with his family and their decidedly different sensibilities. (I still think about the scene where Eddie is emptying the RV’s septic tank into the sewer out in front of the Griswolds’ every time I visit a campground.) Of course, this being a holiday film, there are warm fuzzies for Eddie and Clark. Just not during the septic tank "Shitter was full" scene.
When the kids are grown and have moved away, is it hard to recapture the same twinkle the holidays had when they were young? Evidently yes, because the Kranks decide that with their daughter away for the holidays, they won’t even bother, and they spend their whole holiday fund on a tropical getaway. (Grinches reading this right now are nodding their heads and saying “perfectly prudent decision.”)
But when their neighbours notice they aren’t participating in the traditional mega-decoration of the street and their daughter decides to come home after all, everything descends into hiding out, war on neighbours, and quite a lot of yelling - so you know, a typical Christmas scene. Your enjoyment of this pair is directly related to your enjoyment of Tim Allen in general.
Nobody in this kid’s family believes in him. Which is a bit of a problem since they ARE Christmas. Arthur is the clumsy, odd-man-out grandson of the current Santa Claus, but absolutely no one believes he’d ever get to take over the role and wear the big black boots one day. The move itself is absolutely adorable and quite funny, but it takes about 93 minutes for redemption and three generations have to come to their senses about the delightful Arthur. Not very encouraging, Christmases!
All little Ralphie wants for Christmas is the Red Ryder Carbine Action, two hundred shot range air rifle. But all he keeps hearing is “you’ll put your eye out with that thing.” Though his parents seem well meaning, if a bit distracted, Ralphie deals with all manner of problems on his own in the days leading up to the holiday, including homework anxiety, bullying at school, and having his mouth washed out with soap for saying the very adult word he’s recently learned. (Tell me you've changed a tire in the winter without an F-bomb or two.) The kid suffers at every turn and his folks seem generally clueless, and life as a kid in the 1940s seems fairy awful for Ralphie overall. But Dad saves that day with a little something hiding behind the Christmas tree. But still, that living room lamp and the yelling alone allocate this family to the list. Plus - two words - BUNNY SUIT.
Who are your all-time favourite holiday families? Which ones do you love to hate? Which ones would you rather leave at the bottom of the ornament box?
Image Source: YouTube
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